摘要：The way to a democratic education of children is wide open and well-traced in many European documents and recommendations for democratic and civil society and for the right of children to be informed, but also to be protected from uncontrolled media production. As early as 1964, UNESCO launched the idea of media education, in order to increase the understanding of the media and develop critical awareness of the media in young users, preparing them for responsible citizenship. The UNESCO conference on media education held in Germany in 1982 adopted a declaration signed by nineteen states stressing the importance of this type of education and calling upon the developed countries to work out media education curricula at all levels and join the world-wide project of media education. The present paper examines the extent to which the developed countries have taken the declaration to heart. It shows the main lines of attack and the results achieved to date by different countries. Slovenia and Croatia, too, have democratized their school programmes with the introduction of media education, but it must be said that Slovenia has been much more successful in this regard than Croatia.
